If you look at UE Tim, the US is substantially WORSE off than it was when Obama took office to answer Timmehs whine….In fact someone should tell Tim, taking him at his word that he believes all measures, any measure of economic activity shows things are better since January, the measure of foreclosures and delinquencies has also more than doubled since Obama ‘took charge’:

Update: 12:10pm EST: uh oh. Kudlow says and Steve Liesman confirms, that Geithner is the most fiscally conservative member of Obamas economic advisers. No wonder we are in a world of hurt! CNBC just ran the Brady Timmeh back n forth so it should come up in a video post shortly. will get it up right away.

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Update: 11:!5am OMG OMG Geithner just threw Seniors unda da bus!! He acknowledges to Brownback that yes the CBO score only works if Congress actually DOES the Medicare cuts and he insists they must and should and will DO THE CUTS. He says the costs have to be reduced, Brownback is saying but why cant we save Medicare? Good grief Geithner is a disaster, you aren’t supposed to tell Seniors they are getting thrown under there Timmeh, Obama will be displeased. Good ad for the GOP though!

I am starting Geithner Fired/Resigns Watch now, there will fer shure be some sort of ‘ Obama economic team shake-up’ to placate the rumblings as they get ready to ask for MORE STIMULUS…They can’t get away with it under Geithner IMO, looks like he is marked as sacrificial lamb, but the Progressives will be no happier with Larry Summers, lol….

By dequalss

Typos abound, getting ready while I do this- TImmeh is red and ranting and blaming Bush and Rep Brady made him acknowledge yes he was head of NY Fed when this collapse happened, and they are cross talking, Brady says the public has lost all confidence in Geithner and he reflects badly on his President, he says at some point Geithner has to take responsibility…ohhh excellent!!

Update: 11:04am EST: Rep. Burgess (R-TX) just said “I don;t think you should quit, you shouldn’t have been hired”. Is that a bus engine I hear idling??? This the Joint Economic Committee and is made up of both Senators and House members, double the fun!! Now Sen Brownback is going off about the health care plan and the Yuan peg…

(FD-MiM is a former AIG employee and shareholder and we have followed Geithner’s handling of the crisis as NY Fed-head closely for two years now, our posts on Geithner, Hank Paulson and AIG are legion. Our previous posts on Geithner and the troubled CITI bailout here and here and here and here and here and even here ….)

A Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) member said there’s “growing consensus” among liberals that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner should step down.

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) said Wednesday that he and other liberal House members are becoming increasingly tired of Obama administration economic policies that they say are too focused on maintaining the stability of Wall Street firms and largely ignore “Main Street.”“A growing consensus in the caucus [believe that Geithner should be removed],” DeFazio said on MSNBC this evening, adding that some lawmakers are “considering questions regarding him and other economic advisers.”

DeFazio said that lawmakers have not yet drafted a plan to remove Geithner. The lawmaker also took aim at top Obama economic adviser Larry Summers for furthering many of the same policies favored by Geithner.

“We need a new economic team,” said DeFazio…..

Hey man, live by the populist pitchforks, die by the populist pitchforks. Hard to put that class war genie back into the bottle and it was a HUGE mistake to embolden the populist rhetoric flame throwers in the House…

A former House Republican running for the Senate in Connecticut is calling for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to be replaced over his handling of AIG’s bailout.

GOP candidate Rob Simmons reacted to a report by Neil Barofsky, the inspector general of the $700 billion bailout program, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Barofsky’s report criticized the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which Geithner led during the bailout, for a series of missteps that Barofsky said ended up requiring the government to provide additional support to AIG.

“The report issued yesterday by the inspector general for the TARP program is a deeply troubling account of Secretary Geithner’s failed management of the AIG bailout in which he cost taxpayers $13 billion in unnecessary new debt,” said Simmons, who appears to be the only candidate or office-holder to call for Geithner’s replacement in response to the report.The federal government committed more than $180 billion to AIG, which was crippled by poor investments and trades in credit default swaps, a financial derivative.

Simmons also attacked his opponent, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), in the statement calling on Geithner to be replaced.

“The cozy relationships between the bailed-out financial companies and powerful politicians like Tim Geithner and Chris Dodd are exactly why Americans have lost trust in Washington, D.C., and why we need new leadership with the skills and integrity to clean up their mess and get our economy back on track.”…

US mortgage delinquency rates and the percentage of loans that entered the foreclosure process jumped in the third quarter, with both reaching record highs, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Thursday.

The percentage of loans on which foreclosure actions were started rose to 1.42 percent in the third quarter, an all-time high, up from 1.36 percent in the second quarter and 1.07 percent in the third quarter of 2008.

…The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties rose to a seasonally adjusted rate of 9.64 percent of all loans outstanding as of the end of the third quarter of 2009, up 40 basis points from 9.24 percent in the second quarter and up 265 basis points from 6.99 percent one year ago, the MBA said in its National Delinquency Survey. The delinquency rate broke the record set last quarter. The records are based on MBA data dating back to 1972.

…The percentage of loans in the foreclosure process at the end of the third quarter was 4.47 percent, an increase of 17 basis points from 4.30 percent the second quarter of 2009 and 150 basis points from 2.97 percent one year ago.

The combined percentage of loans in foreclosure and at least one payment past due was 14.41 percent on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the highest ever recorded in the MBA delinquency survey….

If our Secretary of the Treasury is so impaired we cannot announce the long awaited plan during market hours when we would have a monster bear market rally, get him the hexx out of there! Paging Jamie Dimon and Sheila Bair STAT!

The federal government will announce as soon as Monday a three-pronged plan to rid the financial system of toxic assets, betting that investors will be attracted to the combination of discount prices and government assistance. But the framework, designed to expand existing programs and create new mechanisms, relies heavily on participation from private-sector investors. …

…the program is smaller than originally envisioned, raising questions about whether it will be adequate to the task.

The administration’s plan, which has been eagerly awaited by jittery investors, includes creating an entity, backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., to purchase and hold loans.

In addition, the Treasury Department intends to expand a Federal Reserve facility to include older — so-called “legacy” — assets. Currently, it’s only set up to buy newly issued securities backing all manner of consumer loans. But some of the most toxic assets are securities created in 2005 and 2006.

Finally, the government is moving ahead with plans, sketched out by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner last month, to establish public-private investment funds to purchase mortgage-backed and other securities. These funds would be run by private investment managers but be financed with a combination of private money and capital from the government, which would share in any profit or loss…

Jamie Dimon, JPMC CEO, everybody loves him on the street and he is pro Team Obama and has the authority, background, and frankly personality and leadership Timmeh does not

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Both Sheila and Jamie saw the housing meltdown and credit crisis coming and both sounded alarms, Sheila to regulators and Congress, Jamie to financial conferences. They kept their institutions whole through this and have served to help the rest of the financial sector get back on its feet as well as instilling confidence, something the Street needs from the Treasury.

The EESA, recently passed by Congress, includes a number of provisions to encourage loan modifications. In particular, EESA addresses the issue of foreclosure mitigation and provides authority that could hold significant promise for future loan modifications. The statute grants authority to the Secretary of the Treasury to use loan guarantees and credit enhancements to facilitate loan modifications to prevent avoidable foreclosures.

. Specifically, the government could establish standards for loan modifications and provide guarantees for loans meeting those standards. By doing so, unaffordable loans could be converted into loans that are sustainable over the long term. The FDIC is working closely and creatively with Treasury to realize the potential benefits of this authority.

Paulson and Geithner blocked FDIC every step of the way on this Congress Critters like Frank and Waters routinely yell at Kashkari to implement Sheila Bair’s plan monthly…we have posted those clips here at MiM, search Kashkari to view..

As you know, a number of steps have already been taken in this direction. But I think it is clear by now that a systematic approach is needed to help us finally get ahead of the curve. The FDIC is working closely and creatively with Treasury on ways to use the recent financial rescue law to create a clear framework and economic incentives for systematically modifying loans. The aim is for loan servicers to offer homeowners more affordable and sustainable mortgages. In sharing ideas with the Treasury, we have drawn from the program that we are using for modifying loans at IndyMac Federal Bank since we took control of that bank in July.

Jamie took TARP he didn’t want so CITI wouldn’t collapse after he took on Bear Sterns in disarray when Paulson and Timmeh begged him to help save the financial system.(disclaimer MiM has worked at JPMC)…And scooped up WaMu...

AIG (despite a sternly worded letter from Timmeh) via it’s govt approved CEO Ed Liddy tells Geithner they HAVE TO pay over 165 million in employee bonuses MOST TO THE VERY UNIT THAT WROTE ALL THE CRAPPY CDS’ THAT TANKED THE GLOBAL ECONOMY.. Arrrrgggle!. Disclaimer for those who don’t know MiM members worked at AIG we are biased on this topic..

So anywho as we have discussed here before, AIG has a G-D gun to our taxpaying heads, the counterparties to all the CDS are the biggest banks in Europe and around the world…thus we aren’t letting them fail, we are funneling our cash to European banks..

Yeah it is definitely a bad bad codependant relationship at this point and the Treasury is enabling this abusive behavior m’kay?

Do you become very upset when your partner does not follow your plan?

Do you feel you give and give and get little or no return?

Do you freeze up when in conflict with your partner?

Do you often find yourself saying, “It’s not that bad”?

Do you place your partners needs ahead of yours?

Do you feel that your relationship would fall apart without your constant efforts?

Do you feel that you are “stuck” in this relationship?

AND TIMMEH COULDN’T WORK WITH THAT TO GET THE G20 TO DEAL ON STIMULUS SPENDING, WTH, HE HAS A GREAT HAND!! I would’ve done it, cough up demand in your countries or we let AIG go down..WTH we have nothing left to lose baby..how WEAK….Try to LOOK like you have a spine…

Bernanke also expressed quite a bit of anger at AIG in his testimony before Congress this month…

President Barack Obama’s top advisers and Democratic and Republican congressional leaders voiced outrage on Sunday that insurerAmerican International Group, recipient of a $173 billion taxpayer bailout, is paying $165 million in employee bonuses. But they agreed it was unclear what, if anything, the government can do to recover the bonus money from the insurance giant or cut the bonuses since the contracts seem legally binding.

Lawmakers said, however, that plenty of questions need to be answered and some AIG officials may need to be ousted. They also said legislation may be needed to avoid a repeat of such action and retain public confidence in federal bailouts.

“We will absolutely do everything possible to make sure that the money we put in there is spent in a way that we think is appropriate,” Christina Romer, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Romer and another top Obama adviser, National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers, said contracts must be honored but the matter at AIG would be examined.

BIGGEST ;LAUGH/CRY OF THE SUNDAY CHATTER: TOTAL HYPOCRISY TO THE MAX, Summers says WE CANNOT ABROGATE CONTRACTS as the CRAMDOWN HOUSING bill Team Obama recommended moves to the Senate, HA HA BWAAAAHAAAAA!!

And this is after Summers flipped on the bad bad banks routine to GREED IS GOOD in his best Gecko impression, BWAAAHAAAAAA!!! You know all that bad bad bankers with our bad bad airplanes and now they are waltzing away with millions makes Team Obama look WEAK baby WEAK….

“We are a country of law. There are contracts. The government cannot just abrogate contracts,” Summers told ABC’s “This Week.” Regardless, he said: “Every legal step possible to limit those bonuses is being taken by (Treasury) Secretary Geithner and by the Federal Reserve System.”

It gets BETTER! The GOP is saying, even though there are contracts, well we should look them over anyway, you know in case they KNEW it was bad, well isn’t that what the DEMS are saying about subprime loans? that the lenders knew they were bad? Yep, the flip flopping and side switching is FRAKKIN OFF THE RAILS NOW..

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said of the bonuses, “This is an outrage,” and that the Obama administration needs to do more.

“We all know that contracts are valid … but they need to be looked at,” McConnell told ABC “This Week.”

“Did they (AIG) enter into these contracts knowing full well that … the taxpayers of the United States were going to be reimbursing their employees? Particularly employees who got them into this mess,” McConnell said.

No g’news is good g’news on this interview. Apparently Americans are supposed to feel reassured by his doctorial demeanor and go shopping. I am warming up to Ben rapidly with the Apple Dumpling Gang we have running things now for comparison…

The other big news is that Treasury is moving up the rollout of TARP THREE. The latest AIG fiasco is so so bad for Team Obama, the timing, because they chose to push through the bloated stimulus and budget packages before they did the most important thing IMO, funding the toxic asset program

Taxpayers are rightfully and righteously pixxed. This will be all over the news and then Timmeh will come back from G20 EMPTYHANDED Continental Europe is not interested in any stimulus to boost demand and they told him that…POTUS will go in April and hear the same thing about more NATO troops no doubt….

So WOTS is they were hoping things would magically get better without having to inject more capital anytime soon, but the AIG news means they cant come to us later for money, they need to move before the backlash builds we are awash in tea :0) So the big rush is on to roll out TARP Three, Revenge of the Taxpayer, sounds nice huh?

The Obama administration’s plan to purchase toxic assets from the banks in a public/private partnership could be made public as soon as this week, according to senior administration officials. Officials said President Obama has largely signed off on the plan in discussions with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and the president’s economic team. A meeting was scheduled today at the White House to discuss the plan. But some details of the so-called Public Private Investment Fund, or PPIF, had yet to be worked out and officials cautioned that could delay the announcement to the following week

Still, officials say the broad outlines of the plan have been decided. Several competing funds will be established with capital from both public and private sources.

The hope is to have these funds bid on the assets weighing down the balance sheets of the nation’s banks and create a market price through the competition.

The administration plans to begin the program, to be overseen by the Treasury, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Federal Reserve, with purchases of up to $500 billion in assets. It could be expanded to $1 trillion.

The bidders will be offered low-cost government financing to buy the assets and some form of insurance to protect them against downside risk..

If this sounds familiar to you it is because it is the plan Paulson sold Congress as TARP One, yep, go back Jack do it again…..